Fast Food Nation

The book that I chose to read is called Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.  Although I have only read the first fifty some pages, I find that it is a page turner.  At the beginning of the book, I am introduced to Carl N. Karcher, one of the founding fathers of fast food. He grew up on a farm with his family and was given some advice from his father that soon set him up for success.  His father always told him "The harder you work, the luckier you become".  After the end of eighth grade, Carl dropped out of school and soon entered the work force on the farm harvesting, baling hay, and milking and feeding cows.  He had never stepped foot out of Ohio and soon his curiosity landed him in California to work for his uncle.  This is where is all began.  As the book goes on, it describes how California was a growing state and was the second-largest manufacturing center in America.  As the automobile industry boomed so did the type of fast food restaurants.  Fast-food restaurants simply started out as hot dog stands and soon developed into drive in's.  The book describes how Southern California "had recently given birth to an entirely new lifestyle- and a new way of eating. Both revolved around cars". By the time of the 1940's there were more cars in California than there were in forty-one states.  More roadways were created along with drive ins that competed to get traveler's attention.  Carl's success went from a hot dog stand to his very own Drive-in Barbeque that had a five-pointed star symbol we see today as the Hardee's logo. Not only does this book describe the founder of Carl's Jr. restaurant but also the development of McDonald's.

  Link to Carl's Jr. Legacy Project

The McDonald's that we today know and love was first created in 1940 and was first a drive-in business.  The two founders, the McDonald brothers, were tired of constantly looking for new carhops and employees so they closed the restaurant and reopened in 1948.  The "new and improved" McDonald's had a new way of preparing food; it was designed to increase the speed, lower prices, and increase sales.  It did just that.  McDonald's became the first self-service restaurant and in turn, gave the idea to Carl Karcher to open his own self-service restaurant which became Carl's Jr.  As the automobile industry increased, so did the self-service restaurants.  Families could now feed their kids restaurant food at these prices.

I was amazed as I continued to read that these popular restaurants that we know today such as, Taco Bell, McDonald's, Wendy's etc. all were built on the same idea and developed by your everyday average Joe.  These people or soon to be fast-food restaurant owners, would copy and steal ideas from already developed self-service restaurants to create their own!  Carl's success continued to increase until about the 1980's when the Carl's Jr. Restaurant opened in Texas and the value of CKE (Carl Karcher Enterprises Inc.) stock fell.  Carl and his family were accused of insider trading but denied the charges.  Eventually he owed more than $70 million to various banks and eventually was fired by the board members.  Later down the road, Carl regained control of CKE and developed a plan to help save his company and developed the Green Burrito.  The success of this restaurant allowed CKE to  purchase Hardees which is the fourth largest hamburger chain in the US today.  The original logo of Carl's Jr. continued to be the logo for Hardees as well.

I can imagine the change that Carl had seen over a period of time.  He went from gravel to paved roads, hot dog stands to fast food, and saw an increase in the automobile industry.  I am interested to see what else this book and exciting information it has to offer.  So far I am pleased with the book and enjoy reading about the history of fast-food.  I am sure as I continue I won't be so pleased with some information that will be revealed about these fast-food chains that, we as Americans, are drawn to daily.